THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF 31 AUGUST 1971

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: President's Daily Brief 1969-1977
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005992835
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: August 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2016
• Publication Date: August 31, 1971

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The President's Daily Brief
31 August 1971
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THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF
31 August 1971
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS
South Vietnamese military and government leaders ap-
pear to be less than unanimous in their support of
President Thieu's election policy. (Page 1)
Laos
(Page 3)
/ (Page 4)
? The Soviets apparently now are advancing Gunnar Jar-
ring as their candidate ?to succeed UN Secretary Gen-
eral U Thant (Page 5)
Canada\ (Page 5)
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SOUTH VIETNAM
President
Thieu met with senior South Vietnamese Army generals
last week to seek assurance that they would back his
plan to go ahead with the presidential elections on
3 October as scheduled. Although most of the gener-
als readily pledged their support, some were noncom-
mittal. A number of generals asserted that they
were military men, not politicians, but would carry
out Thieu's orders. Several felt Vice President Ky's
exclusion from the race had been unfair, and at least
one--Military Region I Commander General Lam--as-
serted that the senior military men should be allowed
to meet together with Ky as he was also a military
colleague. Lam did, however, express full agreement
with Thieu's policy.
A number of cabinet ministers also met last
weekend,
and drafted a proposal suggesting the presidential
election be postponed. The ministers, who are con-
cerned that a one-man race could ?create a difficult
political situation for the government, believe that
Thieu should not resign, but that a special session
of the National Assembly- should be convened to amend
the- election law and reorganize the contest.
Thus, it would appear that military and
government leaders are less than unanimous
in their support of Thieu's election pol-
icy. Thieu, however, has given no indica-
tion that he is considering changing his
mind. While voting last Sunday, in fact,
he announced that he would be back on 3
October, the date set for the presidential
elections. Thieu probably would be con-
cerned by any signs of opposition from
his military commanders, although he is
not likely' to be worried by suggestions
from some of his less influential cabinet
ministers.
Ky has also been meeting with some of the
generals, and he might be encouraged to
oppose Thieu more strongly if he saw
cracks in the President's military support.
Ky., who has had a tendency to overrate his
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own support intheI past, met recently with
the chief of the Joint General Staff, Gen-
eral Vien, and came away optimistic that
Vien would support him in any future po-
litical moves. Vien, however, told Ky--
as he did the senior generals before their
meeting with Thieu--that the army 's job
was to stay out of politics.
Progovernment candidates are winning the bulk
of the seats in Sunday's Lower House elections. Un-
official returns indicate that a majority of the
deputies in the new 159-member House will be respon-
sive to Thieu. Candidates backed by the opposition
An Quang Buddhists did well in the northern prov-
inces--their main center of strength.
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LAOS
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JAPAN
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NOTES
UN: the Soviets
and tir allies now are boosting Gunnar Jarring to
succeed Secretary General Thant. Moscow is still
trying to convince Thant to remain on the job, but
Jarring seems to be the contingency candidate if,
as seems likely, Thant does retire. Soviet repre-
sentatives may also be floating Jarring's name to
direct support away from the declared Nordic candi-
date, Max Jakobson of Finland. Jakobson's writings
on Finnish neutrality have rankled the Soviets in
the past, and the Kremlin is concerned that a dy-
namic figure like Jakobson might create waves on
other matters if he becomes Secretary General. Pe-
king's support of Jakobson is another factor that
makes Moscow suspicious of his candidacy.
USSR-Canadair
International Economic DevelOpments: The latest
quotations from the Japanese exchange market indicate
that the yen has apprediated About six percent since
it was floated on Saturday./
/According to a late press report, Tokyo is
sending a formal note to Washington asking for re-
moval of the import surcharge as a response to the
Japanese decision to float the yen.
(continued)
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Malta-NATO: The North Atlantic Council yester-
day reached no agreement on additional contributions
to Malta for continued British base rights on the is-
land. Italy was prepared to raise its pledge if
others--including the UK--did likewise, but the Brit-
ish said they were "irrevocably" opposed to offering
more. The UK-NATO offer of $20.4 million in cash and
aid, plus prospective bilateral aid packages from
some NATO members, is short of Valletta's expecta-
tions. Prime Minister Mintoff, however, apparently
still hopes to negotiate an accord with the British
in order to avoid entanglements with Libya and the
USSR that would compromise Malta's independence.
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(
Top Secret
/
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